AN: Chapter's long, so it was split in two parts... Both posted at the same time today.
So care lol
Here's the first one!
A Quick Spar
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World-Eater's Den.
The heat of the room was quickly becoming stifling to Boruto.
A droplet of sweat fell from his face, and evaporated as soon as it hit the floor.
And he was not even the one about to fight.
His father, cloaked in the Nine-Tails' bright golden cloak, illuminated the entirety of the room even through the Four Red Yang Formation.
"That's a fascinating transformation." His Uncle said.
He didn't seem fazed. Bright blue electric chakra crackled around him, making his eyes shine with an eerie blue light.
"Thanks." Dad said, grinning. "Kurama is pretty excited, too."
"Oh?" Uncle asked. "Why is that?"
"Well… Excited might be the wrong word." Dad chuckled. "He said something about this being the ideal opportunity to 'prove once and for all that we are the strongest.'"
Uncle laughed. "Sounds like him. Well, since you're basically a tag team, let me…" He took a fighting stance. Light shaped itself into two blunt swords. "Need a weapon too?"
"Not really." Dad laughed too as he made a fist. "I trust these more, y'know?"
"Of course, of course." Uncle nodded pleasantly.
A beat of silence.
Two similar, eager grins.
Boruto hardly dared to breathe. He didn't make so much as a sound either.
The two men both looked as relaxed as they were focused. Could he become anywhere this strong, someday…?
And the most mind-boggling part was that he knew that neither was revealing their full-strength. Far from it. He knew they were strong, both of them. But Boruto had never realized how strong.
To think that his goofy father could be so serious, so mesmerizing, too.
'Dad…'
A beat of silence.
Another bead of sweat rolled down Boruto's face. He could almost picture it falling toward the ground, further and further…
It made a muted sound once it hit.
Boruto barely noticed the moment they moved.
Dad rushed forward, and the sudden violence in him was jarring. He threw a punch that made a terrible sound when it connected…
With Uncle's wrist. Neither flinched. They grinned. Boruto took a small, almost imperceptible step backward.
Dad flipped over, falling into an axe kick that he had taught Boruto, once. Except Boruto had never seen it create a shock-wave before.
Uncle parried it with his sword this time, and he easily kept up with his father's strength. Then he simply disappeared.
Boruto had sharp eyes, he knew. And yet… he wasn't able to track him.
Dad and Uncle struck with their legs.
Chakra exploded out of them.
Dad struck with a gleaming fist. Uncle dropped his left sword entirely and blocked it with his palm. The sound of it made Boruto's ear-drum voice its displeasure.
Then the Hokage's knee shot up, bright with power. Uncle leaned backward to avoid it, and the Wind it carried impacted the barrier with fury. Uncle's foot caught the still falling sword expertly. He kicked it up toward Dad's chest, covered in crackling fire.
Dad dismissed his subsequent Wind jutsu with haste because of it. He dodged the shooting sword.
Uncle spun.
First in a spinning, horizontal kick. Dad blocked it. Uncle grinned sharply and spun in the reverse direction, using his other leg to pivot.
His sword came crashing down against Dad's wrist. This time, he winced.
"This feels worse than getting hit with an actual sword—" Dad cut himself off, as he was forced to bob and weave around the ever-faster swings.
Dad prepared to leap backwards.
Boruto felt the unmistakable touch of Wind in the air. Was it Dad…?
Ah, no.
The flurry of Uncle's sword strikes created a vortex of sorts, pulling Dad toward him — with a yelp that the Hokage would probably not admit to.
Uncle pushed hard enough with his other leg — and there was Wind here, too — to cancel his rotation. His leg flew toward Dad's chin.
"Nope." Dad called. A large hand, made out of golden chakra, burst out of his stomach and blocked the attack.
"Huh." Uncle blinked. "That's pretty useful."
"Right?"
Uncle's other sword, the one he had thrown previously, came back toward Dad's back. Another golden hand shot out to catch it. Then another, to catch the sword hidden in its shadow.
…And another, to block the one that suddenly crashed from above him.
"How many fu-…dging swords are you hiding?" Dad asked, quickly giving a glance over to Boruto.
"One more at least." Uncle chuckled.
There was a shimmer of bright blue, close to the red barrier's ceiling. Countless swords shaped themselves above the both of them.
Dad stared at them, pursing his lips. Uncle laughed. He pushed off from him.
Golden chakra became more… physical. If Boruto stared, he could almost see the Fox's shape, around his dad. There was an otherworldly roar.
The swords fell with blistering speed.
Countless golden paws rose to meet them.
There was a sound like glass shattering, repeated a hundred times.
Once it was over, the Hokage stood in a field of broken blue shards, eyes gleaming. Uncle nodded in appreciation.
"See?" He asked. "That's where I would have lost your Sasuke — because he'd be dead, likely."
"Oh, please." Dad laughed. "My rival is not anywhere this weak."
"If you say so…"
There was another moment of silence.
Dad slammed his hands together. Raging winds erupted around his form, sending the shards of chakra swords flying all over the place, in a deadly maelstrom. At the same time, two identical copies of him shimmered into existence next to him.
Uncle summoned three arrows out of nowhere.
Dad's clones rushed in, Rasengan in each hand. Boruto's father guided the Wind around them. Boruto didn't even see a bow appear, only a flash of blue.
Whatever it was that Uncle did, one of the clones disappeared almost instantly, and a thin streak of blue was stuck in one of the red walls.
The second clone closed the distance, leading to Uncle dancing around the Rasengan, all the while avoiding the shards of light.
Uncle closed his eyes.
A wall of water rose from behind Boruto's dad. The swirling vortex of wind and water combined engulfed most of the makeshift arena.
"Shouldn't have picked such an enclosed area." Dad laughed. "Here's my Uzumaki Naruto Atlas!"
Uncle laughed as Wind, Fire and Lightning rose around him, moving as one unit of unstoppable fury.
"Are you seriously naming techniques after yourself?" He asked, rising above the cloud of high-pressure steam that became a wall between him and the water.
Boruto yelped as the two monstrous jutsu collided in a flash of blinding light. He was getting less and less convinced about the barrier's ability to hold them off.
His father's fist struck out, aimed at Uncle's face.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Uncle blocked and avoided every single attack. And Dad was going so fast at this point that to Boruto's eyes, it seemed like the attack was a barrage of fists, all of them delivered at the same time.
Then Uncle struck back, exactly as fast. A short sword shaped itself into his left hand, so quickly that it might have been there already, and the twin blunt weapons met every fist, every flurry with equal ferocity.
…Why was the floor shaking...?
Dad caught Uncle's right sword with his left hand, and Uncle caught Dad's other fist with his own left. They pushed, and neither moved.
Twin knee strikes rose up, and to Boruto, it was impossible to tell if any of the two had the advantage. Their knees met several times, and the sound of it made Boruto grind his teeth together.
Chakra hands exploded out of his father. They were pinned down… and up against the ceiling of the barrier by swords that burst out with violence.
Dad tried to go for a headbutt. Uncle met him… head-on.
"Exactly as thick as I expected." Dad laughed.
"Phrasing." Uncle chuckled and blurred away. He reappeared above Dad. "Falling Star."
The Hokage parried the heavy strike with a wince. He barely caught on to the real Uncle's attack, which came from down under.
"Ah come on—" He muttered. "That's very misleading!"
"That's the point!" Uncle laughed.
They struck again.
They were moving faster and faster, and soon enough, Boruto found himself unable to follow at all.
He saw flashes of light.
He heard blunt sounds.
He felt chakra so potent calling it by the same name felt like a disservice.
They both reappeared on opposite sides of the cube.
Dad was — if Boruto understood it well — fighting at full power, if the change in his eyes and cloak was anything to go by. It felt like it too, as chakra rolled off him in waves thick enough to feel cloying even outside the barrier.
Uncle's cloak had changed a bit as well, still blue, but seemingly… denser? His hair was standing up slightly too. And his eyes were gleaming even more than they had, before.
This time, when they moved…
Boruto had no idea what was going on at all.
Then they slowed down, looking at each other with small grins. They looked at Boruto, then.
"Might as well give him something he can actually see, right?" Uncle asked.
"Sure, why not." Dad laughed.
Their chakra pooled together. Electric blue on one side; red and gold on the other.
It rose even higher.
There was a slight touch of purple in Uncle's aura, now. Dad's chakra was focused into his Rinnegan.
Boruto watched with bated breath. He was finally about to see how the legendary eye was used in battle. And to think it was his Dad giving him the honor.
"Oh…?" Uncle tilted his head. "So you're done playing around…?"
"I will end it with my next move." Dad said with dreadful finality.
And a smarmy expression, too.
Dad squeezed his left eye shut, focusing his power through his Rinnegan. He grinned savagely.
"Amenotejikara!" He called.
Nothing happened.
"Huh—"
Uncle's kick got Boruto's dad right in the nose. Well, Boruto could surmise as much, because he didn't see much of it. Still, Uncle's leg was extended in the air, his face set in a dubious expression, and Dad was standing up after having bounced against the wall.
Boruto palmed his face, groaning.
"Shi—" Dad began. Then he caught Boruto's eager eyes — and could almost see his hard-earned money going straight into the swear jar. "-itake."
Boruto sighed. So close.
Dad grinned and shook his head. Chakra gathered around him. "All right, time to shake things up, Kura—"
"Dad, stop." Boruto called.
"Huh…?" He blinked. Then he smiled and sent him a thumbs-up. "Thank you for the encouragement! But this other me can take the incoming beating — this won't be as one-sided as you might think!"
Uncle chuckled. "I'm sure, I'm sure. But he means it's over."
"…What? Why?" Dad asked dumbly.
Boruto shrugged. "We said first blood."
"Well, I'm not bleeding." Dad chuckled. "He only hit me once, and there's no way—… Am I bleeding?" He rubbed under his nose. "Ah, shi—…" A quick look at Boruto. "—ndig. That's... a lot of blood. Guess I lost that one." He mumbled. Then, with hope in his eyes. "You sure we can't continue for a bit?"
"Nope. You lost." Uncle laughed. "Also, you're paying for everybody tonight."
Dad powered down, sighing. "…Remind me what made you think that getting married four times was a good idea?"
"I'd say five, at this point — It was Ino's idea." Uncle said.
"Ah." Dad nodded. "That makes more sense. I pity both Sai and you — Hinata truly is an angel."
"I don't know what a Sai is — besides a weapon —, but okay." Uncle shrugged. "That was a decent warm-up."
"Eh, I get the feeling you barely tried."
Uncle blinked. "Wait, did you?"
Dad looked away. "…Nah, not really."
Boruto squinted his eyes.
"Also… what was that, at the end?" Uncle asked. "That jutsu."
"I saw Sasuke switch places with objects plenty of times — thanks to his Rinnegan." Dad said, quite petulantly. "Why can't I do that?"
"Do you know nothing about the Rinnegan?"
"…I never had a Dojutsu before." Dad shrugged. "And getting the Rinnegan...? It's like…" He hesitated. "What's a good metaphor, Boruto?"
"Getting promoted to Hokage straight after being a genin for half a decade?" Boruto grumbled.
"Yes!" Dad said brightly. "That's an excellent one!"
Uncle laughed.
…
"…Ah." Dad muttered, once Uncle was done explaining. "Yeah, that makes sense. So no swapping myself around…?"
"I'm not into swinging, nor into men." Uncle said.
"What's swinging?" Boruto asked.
"…Nothing interesting." Dad said tightly.
"You can go to other dimensions, though." Uncle said.
"…What for?" Dad frowned. "I have everything I want here."
Uncle just shrugged.
"What about you, Boruto?"
Boruto thought about it. "…Is it dangerous out there?"
"Depends. How dangerous are we talking about?" Uncle asked.
"Like… The level you two were fighting at, right now?"
"Sometimes." Uncle shrugged. "Sometimes more, too. But don't worry, I'm sure you'll become strong."
Dad grinned. "That's our ninja way, right?"
"...What are you even talking about?" Uncle laughed.
MkaKapO png
World #01 - Konohagakure. Later that day.
"Look, mo-… Mikoto-san!" The young Sasuke called. He threw five kunai at once and they hit their targets — or close to it.
"Very nice, Sasuke." Mikoto nodded. "But do remember that there is more to life than training."
"But I have to kill Itac—" Sasuke began.
"…What did I say about this sort of obsession?"
"…That it's a fair thing but that I shouldn't let it consume me…?" Sasuke mumbled.
"That's right." Mikoto ruffled his hair. "We'll find your Itachi together when you're older."
Sasuke bit down on his instinctual reaction — the therapist had said something about the burning anger itself and doing exactly what his abuser had told him to do, but he couldn't remember the exact wording.
"…I guess." Sasuke frowned.
"Don't take the burden upon your shoulders, you're not alone." And a child, besides.
('Fucking Itachi.' Mikoto thought glumly. The Uchiha bloodlust could really strike anyone, then.)
"Mom-... Auntie, look! Look at me!" Naruto said excitedly. He flung three kunai and they all missed their target. "…Uh. Let me try again!"
"Good job, Naruto." Mikoto said fondly. "It was a nice try." She added, indulgently.
"Ah, you think so?" Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I'm sure I can do better—"
Sasuke snorted. "Of course you can, that was terrible!"
"What was that?!"
"Here, I'll show you how to practice your shurikenjutsu." Sasuke continued.
"Huh?" Naruto blinked. "Really?"
Mikoto nodded encouragingly. They were brothers, now.
"You're just too bad for me to spar with, right now. I'll never catch up to Itachi if you stay this weak."
"Bastard—"
Mikoto sighed. At least her grandchildren were not here to hear them. Too young to talk yet, but still… She was certain they would sponge it right up.
World #07 - Shared Konoha house. Even later.
Everyone had nightmares, every now and then.
There was nothing unusual about that, Naruto knew. He was no exception. He could have one on one night, and then none for the next six months. They could be frequent, too.
There was plenty of material there for bad dreams, too. Things he had experienced or done himself. From this life or the previous ones.
Some were rougher than others, but at this point, he acknowledged them as something that just was.
He was mostly fine with them, really.
What he hated was the times they happened to his partners.
And he was seriously considering using some of their… godly powers to do something permanent about them, really.
Tonight was Ino's turn, apparently. Naruto still needed much less sleep than they did, so he had been reading late into the night.
Ino woke up with a shuddering gasp.
Naruto didn't need any explanation, here. He stood up from his reading chair, left the living room, and sat down next to her. He gently brushed her matted hair away from her face, and rubbed circles around her back. Usually, he would coax her back to sleep. He climbed into the bed with her instead.
"Are you feeling anxious?"
"Not really." She half-chuckled.
Naruto squinted. "Is this a no no — or you being as obtuse as me, when it comes to talking about feelings..?."
Ino laughed sharply. "No. It's just… it used to be worse." She admitted. "During that time… Right after Nagato, I mean. Hanabi was there for me, of course… And likewise."
"I know." Naruto simply nodded. "Want to talk about it?"
"Not much to say." Ino shrugged, looking more and more awake by the minute. "It's the classic stuff."
"All of this being a figment of your imagination and… it turns out we all died for good against Nagato…?" Naruto smiled slightly.
"Something like it." Ino laughed. "It's probably from seeing that fucker — well, as close to him as it gets — again."
"Probably." Naruto nodded. "I take it you're not going to bother erasing the memory of it."
"No." She snorted. "That's pointless." Ino waved her hand, and a soft, orange glow formed before the tip of her index finger. It became an ethereal, bird-like creature, and came to rest in the air, throwing gentle shadows across the room. "Don't look so jealous just because you can't help but burn things down."
"That's not even remotely true anymore." Naruto murmured, bringing her closer against him. "I'm sure I can make a decent lantern."
"If you say so." A soft laugh escaped her.
"You're going to make me cry."
"Are your tear ducts still working, even?"
"Only for you."
"I bet you say that to every girl."
"Just five of them."
Ino snorted. Her breathing steadied and the tension slowly left her body. Naruto felt her chest rise and fall in a smooth, even rhythm. He closed his own eyes.
"Hey…" Ino began.
"Yeah? — Thought you were sleeping."
"Do you love me?"
"Of course I love you."
Ino nodded. "I love you too."
"I know." Naruto chuckled.
"…Do you want to stay with me?"
"Sure thing."
"A long time?"
"How does forever sound?"
She laughed. "Good! … Sounds good, I mean."